


The Power You Have

by wackymarvelfan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Avengers, Foster Care, May died with Ben, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Peter Parker, Secret Identity, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22903387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wackymarvelfan/pseuds/wackymarvelfan
Summary: Tony met Peter Parker exactly four times.Each time, Tony had seen him sacrifice his own well-being for the safety of random people. He wasn't big, he wasn't strong, he wasn't tall, he had no superpowers or machines to help him and worst of all, he was only a kid.Tony had met lots of self sacrificing idiots before, but Peter... he was different. Tony could see the determination he had when he was stopping other people from getting hurt, he could see that he had no hesitation when it came to putting himself in harms way, he could see that he deserved a life far better than the one he was living, but could he help him?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Avengers Team, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first fic and I hope you like it!  
> Just a couple of notes:  
> > This takes place right after the first avengers movie  
> > Peter Parker is 15 and without superpowers,,, for the first part at least  
> > I have no updating schedule whatsoever. Sorry :/

“Clint! Stop fucking laughing and be useful for a goddamn second!” Tony scowled at his friend which only increased the other man’s howling laughter. “Come on! I’m too old for this! My back can’t take it!” Clint ran back towards where he came from. “CLINT I SWEAR TO GOD YOU BETTER GET THOR AND IF I SEE ONE CAMERA I’M GOING TO KICK EVERYONE OUT OF THIS TOWER!”

Tony could hear multiple sets of feet running towards him followed by loud, booming laughs. He scowled. “Somebody get Thor,” he said firmly. More laughs followed until he heard the familiar booming voice of the one with luscious locks.

“So that’s where I left Mjolnoir.” He picks the hammer off of Tony’s chest.

“You left me on the kitchen floor for half an hour!”

Thor shrugged, “You ate the last Poptart.” The team howled with laughter, Tony, once again, scowled at them. Steve and Natasha looked like they just came from the gym, Clint just looked like an idiot rolling on the floor laughing so hard and Bruce looked like he came from the lab. They were all giggling at him still, except for Clint, he was still on the floor. 

“You guys are impossible.” He rolled his eyes as he walked towards the elevator. “JARVIS take me to the balcony.”

“Another late night cruise, sir?”

“Predictable, am I buddy?”

“Maybe to some, sir.”

As the elevator dinged, Tony stepped up and allowed the iron man suit to fold around him, not even hesitating before blasting off into the sky. There was something calming about flying, so Tony did it often.

A high pitched, terrified scream brought Tony out of his state of peace. Tony sighed exasperatedly. It didn’t look like today would be very calming.

“JARVIS?”

“It appears that an adolescent girl is currently being cornered by a large man with what I must assume is malicious intent. Interfering would be greatly advised, sir.”

“Ugh, I’ve had enough of these guys. Five bucks says he’s unarmed.”

“He doesn’t appear to have any weapons, sir, but his height is substantial, far greater than yours.”

“Ha! I called it- wait, did you just make fun of me?” The AI didn’t respond. Of course. 

Tony started flying toward this ‘substantially large guy’ and was about to interfere when he saw this scrawny figure jump into the scene. Not sure what his part in this was, Tony decided to wait to see what happened before he jumped in.

The man hadn’t noticed him yet, he was sneaking around him, positioning himself to be directly behind the man. “Hey!” he yelled in a surprisingly high voice. The man jumped, turning around ever so quickly. The girl sprinted away behind him before he could react. Tony was impressed, the scrawny one had guts.

Angry, the man faced the scrawny one again, backing him into a corner this time, “You little fu-“

“I’d watch your mouth if I were you, if Captain America were here, he’d have to kick your butt just for that,” Tony intervened. Tony got a good look at them now, both with equally shocked faces. Once Tony realized that the scrawny one was a kid, like, a fourteen to fifteen year old kid, he would have looked equally shocked if it wasn’t for the mask. “Picking on kids now are we?” he asked the man, gesturing towards the kid.

“This little fu-“

“Ahh,” Tony said, silencing the man and putting his hand out, “you almost swore again. You’re welcome for catching you, I suggest you get out of here now.” He fired up his repulsors and the man took off, running for dear life. Tony snickered. He looked at the boy again, he was freshly bruised and he looked like he was putting all of his weight on one side of his body. “Did he get you?”

“What?” 

Tony sighed, he hated repeating himself. “Did he get you?” he said louder, gesturing to all of the bruises.

“What? Oh, no. These aren’t from him.”

Tony frowned from under his mask, “Then who are they from?” The kid looked down, but didn’t reply. The silence was getting awkward, so Tony changed the subject. “You got guts kid.”

“I do?”

“You just helped a girl get away from a man that is easily four times your size. Of course you do.”

“Oh. Thanks,” he said sheepishly.

“What’s your name kid?”

“Peter, Peter Parker.”

“Well Peter, nice work,” he said and flew away leaving Peter standing awestruck. Tony felt guilty almost immediately after leaving. Should he have stayed a little longer to make sure he was alright? He must have been relatively fine if he was so willing to get into a fight, another part of his brain told him. Despite that being perfectly logical, the name Peter Parker followed by the image of his bruised appearance stayed fresh in Tony's mind for weeks.


	2. 3 weeks earlier...

**3 weeks earlier...**

_  
Peter, you need to do something. Peter you need to focus. I can’t keep repeating myself for your benefit only Peter. I have an entire class to teach, Peter. Peter, are you paying attention? If I have to wake you up one more time, Peter. Pay attention Peter! Peter! Peter!_

His teachers words seemed to mock him wherever he went. They played through his head recently like a broken record, always followed by the dread that Ben and May would not have wanted this. They would have been so disappointed! It’s not like he was trying to be a bad student, he just knew everything that they were teaching at his new public school! Well, that and he was constantly thinking about Ben and May. His brain was managing to turn everything back into memories of them. Once, in Home Ec., the smell of burnt food sent him spiraling with memories of May’s cooking. As horrible as it was, he would do _anything_ to have just one more dinner with them.

He was still doing fine in school, he still aced all of his tests. Naturally, this didn’t make him a favourite of the students or the teachers. Everyone was bitter that he didn’t have to make an effort to pass. Both the students and the teachers tried to convince the school board that he was cheating, but after finding absolutely no proof, it didn’t go so well. He didn’t care though, lately he didn’t care about a lot of things.

He knows he’s still grieving, but he’d rather go to school instead of stay at his new ‘home’ where no familiar faces were waiting there for him. It’s not like he didn’t like the Dantons, they just weren’t Ben or May or his mom or his dad. Not to mention he felt like a complete stranger in their house.

At the beginning, they were always trying to get him to open up to them, to talk about his feelings. He always told them that he wasn’t ready, but truly, he just didn’t want to talk to them. They didn’t know Ben, they didn’t know May, they didn’t miss them. They had no idea what he was going through and he just didn’t feel like explaining it. After two months, they were finally starting to lay off of him. They could tell that he didn’t want to talk to them and they could tell that he was closed off. Peter knew that they were giving up on becoming close to him. He was just another mouth to feed.

Currently, Peter was walking down the maze of back alleys after one of his detentions for missing homework. It was already dark outside and it was cold for mid-fall. His jacket hung off of his thin frame providing no warmth. Peter cursed his size, and his height, sight and asthma problems while he was at it. He always felt so weak and tiny, he hated it! Maybe if he was bigger, or stronger, he could have done something when Ben and May were shot at that convenience store. He wasn’t even fast enough to catch the guys face before he ran away. All he could do was stand over their cold bodies surrounded by red.

So much red.

Peter shuddered and it wasn’t because of the cold. He couldn’t save them. He couldn’t save the two most important people in his life. He couldn’t save the last people in the world that truly cared for him. He couldn’t save them, and he’d never forgive himself for that.

It was the shrill, terrified scream of a woman that brought him out of his self loathing. “Get away from me!”

Peter’s curiosity and lack of anything better to do brought him closer.

“Oh come on now little lady,” he heard before peeking around the corner, “I’m sure we can make you feel _real_ nice.” He saw the two men now, they were the kind that Peter thought only existed in movies. They were the image you’d see if someone said the words ‘bad guys’. They were tall and huge! With tattooed arms the size of all of Peter’s arms and legs put together! They were wearing all black, hoodies and one of them was even wearing a beanie! They had giant heads and wicked grins full of yellow teeth. Peter could smell the liquor on their breath from where he was standing.

They were backing a young girl, maybe his age, into a corner. She was absolutely terrified, and she had every right to be. Those men were terrifying. She started to scream again, “Help! Help! Somebody help me please!”

Peter had heard those words every night in his dreams. Only this time, it was a young girl who needed help instead of a caring aunt after seeing her husband’s body, just seconds before she was shot as well. Peter had just come out of the aisle then, after hearing his aunt’s desperate voice feeling absolutely helpless. He stood for so long, frozen in shock after the first gunshot before he finally moved. Maybe if he hadn’t taken so long to discover what had happened, he could have saved his aunt.

It was the regrets and what ifs that kept him awake at nights, and he knew that he would rather die than let that happen again. Full of adrenaline, Peter jumped out from behind the corner he was hiding behind and screamed in a voice that came nowhere near as intimidating as he wanted, “Leave her alone!”

The men`s heads snapped towards him in an instant. He watched their expressions go from being shocked, to being incredulous then finally, to cruel, intimidating smiles once they realized that their captor was only a kid. Peter frowned, he knew that he wasn’t very scary but he was hoping for a better reaction.

“Well what do we have here?” One of the men asked while stepping towards his direction. Peter gulped. For a supposedly smart kid, he sure didn’t use his head a lot. The other man, the one with the beanie, sized him up really slowly, making Peter realize how easy it would be for them to beat him up. It wouldn’t even be close, it wouldn’t even be close to not even close.

“Someone who actually knows the difference between right and wrong.” He tried to be tough, but his voice ended up cracking. He cringed.

“Is this guy for real?” beanie asked the other man, gesturing roughly to Peter with his thumb.

The man shrugged, then turned to Peter, “look, kid-“

“Don’t call me that,” Peter said without thinking, interrupting the very man that could beat him to a pulp. He looked up from his shoes nervously, finding two very annoyed men and to Peter’s absolute pleasure, he found that the young girl was nowhere to be seen. She must have run away while the men were distracted. Peter smiled, unfortunately for him. The men noticed his sudden glee and looked back, finding the girl missing as well.

They were angry now, absolutely furious. Peter didn’t think it was possible for them to get any more scary; he was wrong. “You little-“

Peter bolted then, he couldn’t outrun them but he could maybe get to a more populated area. He got about 100 feet before the men caught him and threw him to the ground. He was punched in the face two, three times and when he moved his hands to protect himself, he got some slugs in the ribs. It hurt like crazy. He blacked out rather quickly, luckily for him, the men got bored and left him there, unconscious, but still breathing.

He came back to the Dantons’ a lot later that night bloodied and bruised, but happier than he’d been in a long time. He’d helped somebody! He’d saved one poor girl from possible assault! He slept greater that night than any night since that night at the convenience store. He made a promise to himself then, he promised that he would help save as many people as he could. Pretty much anyone had a better life than him, so why shouldn’t he keep that going for them? He’s had so many awful things happen to him, he told himself that it didn’t matter if he let a few more things happen for the sake of other people. He’d never be able to save Ben and May, but he could hope to make up for it with this. So what if he gained a couple injuries, it’s not like anyone would care about his appearance anyway.

Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. His appearance did affect him. Peter forgot to tell the Dantons what happened and it wasn’t long before they came to their own conclusions. Street fighting wasn’t all that uncommon for grieving boys. He was at a new foster home within a week.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Peter shrunk under the gaze of his oldest foster brother, Danny. He said nothing. “Well?” he asked Peter, annoyed.

“Out,” he said finally. Trying not to look at the 6’2”, 17 year old. Danny was a lot bigger than Peter, a lot meaner too. He had been in juve’ three times already and had a bitter hatred for the world. It was safe to say that he didn’t care about Peter, or anyone else for that manner, except for maybe his brother, Eric, who was also one of Peter’s foster brothers.

“Well, the floor’s still dirty and the living room’s a mess.”

“Those weren’t my chores,” Peter replied quietly. “They were your guys’.” It was a Sunday and he didn’t want to spend more time in this house than he needed to. He had a pretty rough night with some low level thugs yesterday.

“Well, Eric and I are going out tonight, so they’re yours now,” he said in a rough tone that left no room for debate.

He and Eric were always ‘out’. Always getting into all sorts of trouble. Peter has caught them with all sorts of stolen items, varying from little items from convenience stores to women’s purses to cases of alcohol. Peter normally gives people the benefit of the doubt, a small part of his brain tells him that maybe they got mixed in the wrong people and know no other way of life. With these guys, though, it’s different. They genuinely seem to enjoy stealing from others and making others feel bad. They enjoy using their strength and their intimidating statures against those who can barely defend themselves! Peter didn’t like them one bit, the only reason he didn’t tell anyone about what they did was because, well, he didn’t have anyone to tell. Even the police wouldn’t trust him one bit. He’s met them a couple of times after saving some people in back alleys, they never believe that he was only trying to help. It probably didn’t help his case that he was always sporting bruises and wearing baggy clothing. He wasn’t wearing them to steal anything! He was just really skinny!

Just about the only people in the world who knew that he’d never hurt a fly were, unfortunately, his foster brothers. After spending a few weeks with him, it didn’t take much digging to figure it out. Because of this, he was forced to do more chores and he ate less on the account that they were always stealing his food. He knew it wasn’t fair, but what could he do about it? It wasn’t one of those cases where he would just have to politely ask and they would ease off of him. No, no, no. If he wanted some power, he would have to earn it in some way like a fight... but he knew as well as they did that that was never going to happen.

Peter hated that he had to live here! He hated that people thought he was just as bad as Danny and Eric! He thought about running away a few times but who was he kidding, he’d never make it on the streets. The Tippets were giving him a place to stay, and he had to be grateful. Even if they were only housing kids for the paycheck and barely provided enough food to go around, he had to be grateful. Even though they ignored their foster kids, he had to be grateful. May always taught him to be grateful for the things you have in life, and she would have wanted it that way.

In all honesty, Peter didn’t mind the extra chores, it kept his mind busy for a little while at least. The Tippets sure didn’t care about a whole lot, but if the chores weren’t done, they didn’t hold back. Their punishments including everything from taking meals away to a good beating with a wooden spoon to screaming at them about how worthless and useless they were, personally, Peter hated the last one the most.

The Tippets, if they were in the right mood and especially if they were drunk, would punish them for doing nothing at all. Peter knew to stay away from them when they’d had a few now, the other two did too.

After Peter finished ‘his’ chores, he grabbed his jacket and left the house hoping for today to be a good one. He started walking towards his only true place of comfort anymore, the old, practically empty library not far from his house. When he had switched foster houses, he had moved into an even rougher part of the neighborhood. This meant less libraries and an even crappier school. He knew he should have been attending classes regularly but it didn’t seem like one of his top priorities. Rougher neighborhoods meant rougher people and rougher people meant that there was more crime and more people he could save. Not to mention that he could do everything they were teaching in his sleep.

The librarian at the library was one of the only people who he felt wasn’t constantly judging him whenever he was around. At least if she was, she didn’t show it. She also didn’t seem to be bothered by his presence, in fact, she seemed happy that someone was even coming to the library at all. She was a sweet old woman with a kind face. Every time he saw her, he wondered why she lived in such a rough neighborhood.

“Good morning, Ms. Bennet,” Peter greeted as he walked through the entrance.

“Peter, honey good to see you!” she said sweetly then frowned, looking at his fresh bruises. “What happened to your face?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he reassured kindly, he didn’t want to lay his problems on the old lady.

Ms. Bennet frowned again but didn’t push. After accepting that he wasn’t going to talk, she asked him, “You are going to talk to me sometime, right?”

“Sure. He replied easily, “Maybe someday.”

Satisfied, she changed the subject, “I brought in some more of those science whiz books that nobody understands but you, Peter! I figured you could use some more after reading the only one we had about a dozen times,” she shook her head fondly.

“Really?” Peter asked, only slightly registering how much he sounded like an excitable, little toddler.

“I sure did.” She smiled, “Go ahead and read them already,” she said teasingly.

Now Peter smiled and after a quick thank you he walked towards what was now deemed ‘The Science Whiz Section’. He browsed through the new books and picked out Dr. Bruce Banner’s latest theory on gamma radiation excitedly. He would enjoy this one.

As he was reading, he could see Ms. Bennet glance in his direction every few minutes. Was he worrying the woman? He hoped not, he didn’t want to make anyone worry about him. He realized that she was worrying because he hasn’t told her anything about himself. Unfortunately, telling her about his life would probably only make her worry more so he kept his mouth shut. He felt incredibly guilt, but he thought it was for the best.

Later that evening, Peter was heading out of the library when suddenly Ms. Bennet blurted, “Do you need help getting away from somebody?”

Peter stopped in his tracks. He turned around and smiled at the old woman. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

Peter nodded, “I’m fine Ms. Bennet, don’t go worrying yourself about me.” She frowned. “Truly,” he added, “I’m fine.”

With that he left, leaving Ms. Bennet at the library. It was dark enough now that there would be some crime happening, so Peter started his rounds of walking the back alleys, keeping his eyes and ears open for anyone who might need saving. Never in a million years would he think that Iron Man would make an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back! Please let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! I hope you liked it! Please comment and let me know what you think!


End file.
